THE GALLEON FOUND.
The severe rains gradually ceased, until sunshine was the rule and rain
the exception. I did not expect a season of absolute dryness, for in
this locality rain prevails to some extent throughout the whole year, so
that the vegetation rarely suffers from drought.
One morning, the sky being clear and a gentle breeze blowing from the
southwest, Duke and I went aboard the boat,--which by the way, I had
named the “Mohawk”--and started for a trial of the water-glass. We were
soon on the ground, a mile to the north of the cape. Lowering the sails
I put the glass over the side, with very little hope of success as the
water seemed to have a cloudy appearance. It proved to be in such a
condition that I could not see the bottom at all. I then put up the sail
and ran in nearer the shore to where the depth was about thirty feet.
Here I could see the sand and rocks and shells on the bottom very
distinctly, and noted that there were streaks and veins of the murky
water running through the more transparent portion.
Finding that nothing could be done in the way of investigation until the
water became clearer, I stood out to the west until by a single tack I
could make Farm Cove, intending to bring back a cargo of corn and some
yams and potatoes. I found a few bushels of yams still in good
condition, and noted with pleasure that many of the potatoes left in the
ground had sprouted and the vines had already acquired quite a growth.
With spade and shovel I turned to heartily, and cleared away the
luxuriant growth of weeds which threatened to choke this volunteer crop.
Then I loaded in my corn and started back, reaching home in time for
supper.
The next two days I devoted to planting a patch of corn, hardly
expecting to remain long enough upon the island to enjoy it, but
thinking it wise to provide for an uncertain future. On the third day I
went out again to try the water-glass, but the water was still lacking
in transparency and there was nothing to do except to wait.
But while returning I thought of a thing that would be very useful to me
in future expeditions, and that was to set up on the northern cape
something which might serve as a guide to me in future operations. I had
no compass and was obliged to guess the direction blindly by the sun.
Now the Spanish admiral, when he reported that the galleon bore east of
north from the point of rocks, and about a mile therefrom, probably
spoke, as to direction at least, from actual observation of the compass,
as a sailor would; for nobody knows better than a sailor the
impossibility of guessing at direction without a guide. Indeed, the
sailor, when he comes on deck, turns instinctively to the compass to
orient himself and correct his sense of direction, because the course of
the vessel may have changed half a dozen times during a watch below,
without his knowledge. To one on board a vessel the parts fore and aft,
starboard and port, below and aloft, have a fixed relation to each
other, and one is apt to get a set impression as to direction from this
fixed relation of familiar objects. Thus I have heard of an old
sailing-master who was on board the same vessel for twenty years, and
who declared that, no matter where the ship might be or upon what
course, it always seemed to him that the head of his bunk lay to the
north; that when at sea the most distressing thing to him was that the
sun never rose in the same quarter two mornings in succession; and that
it never rose in the east except on Long Island, where he was born.
As to the accuracy of the estimated distance--one mile--that, to be
sure, was a much more uncertain quantity; though officers of war vessels
are, and were then, well trained to estimate distances on the water, as
otherwise they could not determine the range of their cannon and arms.
Altogether I had every reason to suppose, barring variations in the
compass and individual errors, that the location assigned was reasonably
accurate. At any rate I decided to start my investigation with the
assumption that the assigned location was accurate, and to work from the
designated point as a centre; it would then be easy, as I proceeded, to
allow for error in all directions without the chance of multiplying it
in any particular direction.
In my little box of drawing-tools was a small brass protractor--a
semi-circle divided into one hundred and eighty degrees, with
half-degree marks. This would be convenient in the work I was about to
do, though not absolutely necessary, as in its absence I could have
easily constructed one that would answer my purpose. The first thing to
do was to establish a true north and south line. That night the stars
shone brightly, and I easily found the pole star by the pointers in the
Great Bear, or “Dipper.” In the sand at the north cape I drove an
upright stake made of a stout cane. Then taking another straight piece I
placed it in a notch on top of the upright and sighted along its length
adjusting it until it pointed straight at the north star. To secure it
in this position I drove a short notched stake at the butt of the
inclined cane and tied the cane firmly to both. I was now sure that the
two uprights were in a true north and south direction from each other,
and the work for that night was finished, as the remainder could be
better done by daylight.
The next thing I wanted was a standard of measurement; unfortunately my
drawing instruments did not contain the usual ivory rule. But this did
not occasion me much uneasiness, as I hoped to be able to deduce the
standard inch by a comparison of my belongings. If I once got the true
inch it would be easy to get from that the foot, the yard, the rod, the
mile. I had my photograph plates as one guide; these I had every reason
to suppose were cut quite accurately to the dimensions of five inches by
seven. Then there was the brass protractor. It is true there were no
inches marked on this; but the workman who made it would naturally
follow some standard, and the chances were very great that the diameter
of this instrument would be found to be an exact multiple of the inch,
and as I conjectured, exactly four inches. To test this matter I laid
the protractor on the short side of one of the plates, and taking the
difference between the two found, as I had expected, that this
difference was one fifth of the width of the plate, and one seventh of
its length. This proved satisfactorily to my mind that the plate was
accurate in dimensions, that is to say, five by seven inches, and that
the difference between the length of the straight side of the protractor
and the width of the plate was the standard inch. From this
starting-point I constructed a foot measure, and cut me a light pole
exactly a rod in length.
Returning now to the cape where my north and south direction rod was
fixed, I proceeded to set a peg, which to avoid confusion we will
designate as A, in the sand in a prolongation of the line, and with the
protractor got the true east by north, marking this line by a second
peg. Then I turned about and marked a line which made an angle of one
hundred and twenty degrees with the east by north line, and which would
lead down the beach.
I now proceeded to plant in the sand three poles about fifteen feet in
height: one at the central point A, one in a prolongation of the east by
north line, which pole we will call B, and the third in a prolongation
of the angle line down the beach, which latter pole we will call C. The
next thing was the measurement of a base line from the pole A, through C
down the beach for a mile. This I did as accurately as I could with my
rod measure; but it was a sort of work highly conducive, as you may
imagine, to the backache, especially as I went over it three times to
eliminate as much error as possible, taking the average of the three
measurements. Nor was the third measurement completed much before it was
time to go home.
Only one thing now remained to be done, and this I did the next morning.
At the end of the mile line on the beach I erected a tall pole, which we
will call D, and from it as a centre laid off a line thirty degrees from
the base to intersect the east-by-north line or its prolongation, and
marked the direction by a second tall pole which we will call E. Now,
according to a simple problem in trigonometry, it will be seen that if I
should sail out in my boat east of north from the cape, guiding myself
by the two poles A and B, when I had brought the poles D and E into line
having A and B in line at the same time, I should be a mile away from A
in a true east-of-north direction.
Although I now went out every day to try the water, it did not grow
clear. Finding the guide-poles barely visible, especially the more
distant pair, I mounted a gourd on the top of each one, after which I
had no further difficulty in seeing them. As it was some little trouble
to take the bearings constantly, I rigged a buoy and anchored it at the
spot where theoretically the galleon lay. I found the water about sixty
feet deep; and the buoy--a large gourd attached to a line with a stone
for an anchor--floated easily on the swell, with eighty feet of line.
After this buoy was anchored I took down the guide-poles, marking their
places with pegs, in case I should require to use them again. This I did
out of a superabundance of caution, not that I believed any one else
than myself--had there been any one else--could have read the riddle
they told to me.
Every day for three weeks I went out to the shoal near the buoy and
examined the water. It was getting gradually clearer; but had it not
been for my recollection of the first visit made, before I had the
water-glass, and of the appearance of the water at that time, I should
have doubtless given up the attempt in despair. The remembrance,
however, of the clear water, and the gleam through it of yellow sand,
was not to be forgotten, and it kept up my hopes to the last.
The weather grew oppressively hot, and there came on one day a terrific
thunder-storm followed by a gale of wind from the northeast which lasted
two days and was followed in turn by fair weather, with a gentle
southwest wind. When I went out again I found the water quite clear. I
was very impatient to test the glass, so much so that I would not wait
to make any trials until I had reached the neighborhood of the buoy.
Here I lowered the sails and put the glass over.
I could see the bottom quite plainly. It was of clean sand and strewed
with shells. Here and there was a fragment of sea-weed, sponge, or other
ocean growth. A shoal of silver-sided mackerel dashed by, and numerous
strange fishes came into view. One sort there was with long streamers
extending from the tail, and a body banded with rainbow hues. I looked
long and intently at the strange panorama unfolded to my view, and found
when I raised my head that the boat had drifted half a mile to the
northeast of the buoy. Then I hoisted the sail and ratched back beyond
the buoy, and drifted again, with the glass over the side, watching the
bottom for signs of the galleon. This manoeuvre I repeated as long as
there was light enough to see. I found that I could not see the bottom
after four in the afternoon, nor before nine in the morning.
I spent three days at this work without any success, and then found that
I was going at times over ground that I had already searched, for I
began to identify objects as having been already seen. Especially did I
recognize a huge conch-shell with a clam-shell wedged in the mouth. It
was necessary therefore to devise some systematic method of search, or I
should simply be hunting over and over the same ground. So I adopted the
plan of gridironing, so to speak, a territory of a mile square, after
the following fashion: I made me an extra buoy and anchored it at an
arbitrary point about a half-mile south of the centre buoy. Taking this
as a starting-point I drifted a mile before the wind to the northeast;
then ratching back to the starting-point I lifted the buoy and carried
it a hundred feet to the northwest, and drifted again down another
parallel line, and so on.
The wind held steadily in the southwest, fortunately, day after day, and
after a week’s hard work I came nearly on a line with the central buoy;
but no signs of a wreck, or even a mound where one might be buried in
the sand. On the eighth day of this systematic search the weather seemed
about to change. A huge bank of clouds lay low in the southwest, and I
hardly knew whether to venture out or not. But as it would in all
probability take some hours for the storm to brew, I set forth and made
one drift with my usual success, then returned and started for the
second.
When I was about half-way down on the second drift I found the wreck.
There was no doubt about it. The hulk lay there very slightly buried in
the sand, a great, black mass careened a little to port, and the bows
somewhat higher than the stern. Strange to say, it was not further than
twenty rods from my central marking buoy, and about due north from it. I
immediately dropped overboard my reserve buoy, composed of four large
gourds attached to a strong line, and having a hundred-pound rock for an
anchor, and watched to see that the anchoring-stone dropped just beside
the hull.
At last I had found it! Here beneath me in sixty feet of water lay the
Spanish galleon, exactly where the admiral so long ago had reported her
to have sunk. His report being so far verified, it would also prove true
in respect to the treasure contained within her ancient ribs.
A darkening of the sea and sky warned me that there was no time to waste
in dreaming over my discovery. The storm which had been coming would now
soon be here. I therefore hoisted sail and turned my back on the
galleon. It was none too soon. Indeed, before I made the creek the wind
had risen to such a height that I had to lower the sails and double reef
them, and then went into the creek gunwale under, with the white spume
and froth flying clear over the boat. But a miss is as good as a mile.
I got safely in and cooked me a noble dinner of corn bread and baked
pork and beans in honor of the day’s glorious event.
Duke and I sat in the open porch that afternoon, sheltered from the wind
and rain, resting contentedly after the long strain of hard work which
had kept me on the keen jump every day from dawn until dark since the
search began. The wind blew strongly, with occasional gusts of driving
rain, and I feared the storm might shift my buoys, or tear them loose
and carry them away; but I could locate the central buoy again by the
sights already taken, if it should go, and from that the spot could
easily be found. But I hoped for better results, as the main buoy, which
marked the wreck, had plenty of line, and moreover, was strong and
buoyant. I wished this one might last, for with the anchor lying close
beside the sunken hull, it seemed to me a sort of claim stake. I
determined, as soon as the weather would permit, to rig a buoy which
would outride the storms, and anchor it securely over the wreck. As is
usual with the heavier winds and gales in this locality, the wind before
nightfall began to veer around to another quarter, getting before sunset
quite around into the north, and by nine o’clock settling down in the
northeast, exactly the opposite quarter from its starting-point, with
fine rain and mist.
Having located the galleon, I had now done all I had intended to do
before leaving the island, except to mark the location more securely, if
that proved necessary; and I was therefore impatient to get away in my
boat for Martinique or some other civilized port where I could get the
necessary assistance and diving-apparatus. Of course I must now wait for
settled weather and a favorable wind as I had once before had to do. But
this time I hoped most sincerely that I should not be kept waiting as
long as before, for with little to do the time would hang heavily on my
hands. The bare thought of getting back once more to civilization made
my heart beat faster, and stirred my very soul.
The northerly wind was chill, and the air so moist that I built a
cheerful fire in the chimney and drew my chair up in front of it, closed
the door, lighted a candle, and tried to read, Duke snoozing on the
floor at my feet in front of the hearth.
But although I sat thus until midnight, I could not read. I watched the
embers fall and die away hour after hour, thinking over the days spent
on the island, the trials and the labor, the mistakes and the successes,
and the strange outcome. That I should have actually found the galleon
seemed now upon cool reflection little less than a miracle. That some of
the hundreds of professional wreckers and divers who make a regular
business of seeking out such things on the faintest clues should not
have run across the Spanish admiral’s report and sought and found the
wreck and removed the treasure seemed a strange thing to me now. Why had
not the Spanish government done this long ago? Then the horrible idea
entered my mind that perhaps they had already done so. Or if not,
perhaps an expedition designed for that purpose might even now be on its
way, and might arrive when I had left the island. If so, they would
speedily pick up my buoy, and I should return to find the treasure gone.
All these and a thousand such distempered fancies tortured me into a
state bordering on frenzy. To have the treasure almost in sight and yet
to lose it would be too much for human nature to bear. I would remove my
buoy, erase every mark and take my chances of picking up the clue. But
after all, how foolish that would be. The treasure lies there safe, and
has lain there many, many years, and this frantic fear coming at so
late a day is the height of folly.
Then my mind would wander away to plans for conducting my negotiations:
how I should seek out a man whom I could trust, and how I should present
matters to secure his aid and co-operation. How should I get the money?
Ah, there were the pearls! I would sell them and possibly raise money
enough myself. But would I dare offer these pearls for sale? Would not
their possession excite the cupidity of others and cause them to follow
me back to the island and come upon me in the midst of the work of
securing the treasure?
And so my fancies came and went, until at last, overpowered by fatigue,
I fell fast asleep in my chair, and was wakened an hour or two before
break of day by Duke’s cold nose against my hand. Whereupon I sensibly
went to bed and to sleep.